Web Site Optimization

Achieve Better Search Engine Ranks

The reason we consider website optimization an internet marketing strategy is quite simple. Search engine traffic is free, and as your search engine ranks rise, you get more and more link requests from other webmasters, giving you yet another source of free traffic. In the long run, traffic is the primary concern of most internet marketing webmasters.

Everyone wants better search engine ranks. You can learn how to handle your own search engine optimization right here and become self reliant. Learning web site optimization for better search engine ranking is not that difficult, but will take some time.

You need to keep in mind that there is a big difference between an index and a directory. An index is maintained by a "spider" that crawls the web on a regular basis, and creates an index of sites based upon a complicated formula of factors. Where you show up in the indexed listings depends upon how you score according to the search engine's proprietary ranking formula. You get listed in an index either by submitting your URL and waiting for the spider to "crawl" your site, or because the spider found your site from one or more of your incoming links.

You will need to learn about the particulars of Search Engines, Indexes, and Directories, but first a word about Meta Tags, which you will hear a lot about. Meta Tags are part of the HTML code at the very top of your page. The most important ones are your Title tag, and the Keywords and Description tags.

Even as recently as a few years ago, the search engine spiders indexed pages according to the lists of keywords provided by the site creator in the "keywords" Meta Tag. As you might expect, webmasters started cheating by "stuffing" the keyword Meta Tag, and the search engines changed their indexing methods to cope with this.

Nowadays, only the Title and Description Meta Tags are considered important, and search engine indexing has become much more analytic. Search engines now focus on evaluating the actual content of website pages. Rather than relying upon what the site creator says the site is about, search engine algorithms now evaluate the actual page content, and make their own decision about what your pages relate to. As a result, you need to learn how to properly structure a web page to get the search engine spiders to consider it relevant to the theme and key words that you have chosen.

While the exact formulas differ and are top secret, the major search engines now rank you in their listed results based upon a combination of several factors: URL relevance to the search term, key word relevance in your page title and description meta tags, key word relevance, density, and placement on the page itself, and use of keywords in both incoming and outgoing link text. Your link popularity (how many incoming links you have) and also your link relevance (whether the sites you have links to and from are related to the theme of your site) are also critically important.

By contrast to an Index, a Directory, on the other hand, is simply a list of sites, broken down into categories. You get listed in a directory simply by submitting your site description, and having it approved by the editor. Most directories display their listings within categories alphabetically, which is why you need to think ahead of time about your site name and URL, and the description you'll submit to the directory. Some alphabetize by site names, while others alphabetize their listings according the the first word of the site description or link title.

Unlike indexes, directories pay no attention to the keyword content and structure of your pages. Nonetheless, your URL, your page titles, and your page descriptions remain important, because they will be an integral part of how your site is described in the directory. Eventually, the search engine spiders will discover your directory listings, and evaluate them as incoming links to your site. As mentioned above, the presence of key words in your incoming links (including your directory listings) is a critical factor in the process by which a search engine ranking algorithm evaluates your site and determines how well your pages will rank for a given search term.

Structure your pages for higher search engine ranks

The entire process of web site optimization for better search engine results is a science unto itself, and constantly changing, as major search engine algorithms evolve and improve. Volumes have been written on the subject. Rather than try to educate you here, I'll give you a brief overview, and refer to you some of the very best search engine optimization software and ebooks on the subject.

As mentioned above, use of your keywords and phrases in your page titles (and to a lesser extent, in the page names themselves - i.e. the actual file names) is of critical importance, as is using your key words and phrases in your Description Meta Tag.

Some search engines use your title and Description meta tags for your search engine results listing, while others choose some portion of the text on your page for the description. In many cases, that description is plucked from the first paragraph on your page, but I even have well-ranked pages appearing in the search engine results listings with the listing containing the text from the very bottom of my pages!

In addition to using your key words and phrases for page titles and headings, you need to sprinkle them throughout your page, with higher concentrations in the first and last paragraphs of your page, and sparse use in the center of the page. Try also to use variations, including synonyms, for your key words, as search engine spidering techniques are becoming more and more "human-like" in how they evaluate pages. Artificial intelligence methods are used to try to evaluate a page in much the same way a human reader would. As a consequence, synonyms, and different phrasing will still improve your relevance ratings for your key words.

Finally, you need to try to use your key words in both the incoming and outgoing links to and from your pages. Search engine spiders evaluate your link text, and even the "alt" text that underlies the graphics on your pages, in trying to determine the page content, theme, and keyword relevance.

Your goal is to use your key words enough to convince the search engine algorithm to use them in assigning relevance to your page, but not so much as to appear to be "spamming". Is this all starting to sound way too complicated? At first, it is overwhelming, but learning website optimization and getting better search engine rankings isn't as daunting a task as it sounds. You can learn about achieving higher search engine ranks from one of several excellent introductory texts on the subject.

In addition, when you can afford it, an investment in some top-notch web site optimization software will pay for itself many times over.

This software helps you to evaluate your pages as compared to the top five or ten pages for the search term (i.e., key words or key phrase) of your choice, and makes suggestions for improvement. In addition, the major packages help you to automate the process of submitting your pages to the search engines and directories.

Submitting your site to indexed search engines.

Some people advocate focusing on getting incoming links to your site, and simply waiting for the search engine spiders to find you, but most feel that you should submit your URL to the major search engines at least once. To get listed in directories, you must, of course, submit your own listing.

To get indexed by some search engines you'll need to submit your primary URL to them regularly, although in most cases, once is sufficient. Generally, you submit either your index page, or your site map, or both. Once your site has been crawled a few times, especially if you have a growing list of incoming links, or the spider finds changes to your site each time it is crawled, you no longer have to make repeat submissions. The spider will come back automatically. This is especially true of the "googlebot", but applies to most other major spiders, as well.

Submitting all of your pages regularly is a more controversial technique, advocated by some experts, and shunned by others. If you make regular submissions, you need to be careful. Most experts agree that you should not submit more than a few pages per day, to avoid having the search engine think you're spamming it, and some insist it is far better to let the search engines find your pages through your site map and your incoming links.

By the way, don't be taken in by services that offer to submit your site (for a fee, of course!) to "10,000 search engines and directories". The fact is, something like 70% to 80% of all search engine traffic is accounted for by the "big three". Keep in mind also that many of these services "blast" a list of every page on your site, which puts you at risk for the major search engines thinking you're a spammer.

There are three major players in the search engine wars. The first and most important is Google, although Yahoo is now starting to give them strong competition. The third major engine is MSN. There are another half-dozen search engines that are important, but they all get their results from one of the major players, so most experts agree you should focus your efforts on those. Until recently, Yahoo was strictly a directory, and used Google for its backup, but Yahoo has now developed its own spider and indexing method, as has MSN.

Google receives more unique search requests than any other search engine, but competitors Yahoo and MSN are catching up somewhat. Google is also the provider of primary search results AOL and a number of other search portals. To learn more, about the major search engines and their relationships, check out Search Engine Watch, which is considered by many to be one of the top search engine resource sites.

Google provides web masters with tips on how to get good placement with their search engine. You can read Google's advice on getting better search engine ranks, and can also submit your URL to Google. The folks at Search Engine Watch also have tips for getting the best placement at the major search engines, and you probably should consider picking up one or more good ebooks on search engine optimization and and getting better search engine ranks.

Yahoo is the major directory on the internet, and also the oldest. For a number of years, indexed results at Yahoo were provided by Google, and blended with the directory results. In February of 2004, Yahoo introduced their own crawler search technology. You can submit your URL using either free submission, or paid inclusion. To access their free submission page, you have to sign up as a Yahoo member, but it doesn't cost you anything. Paid submission, on the other hand, will cost you $299, and you are not guaranteed a listing. They guarantee only that they will review your site, and if they include you, then you'll have the privilege of paying annual fees to maintain your listing.

MSN is now getting serious about competing with the Google and Yahoo indexes, and all three are thought to be moving more and more towards commercialization, which means that eventually we may all have to pay for inclusion, even in indexes. The MSN spider algorithm continues to evolve, but is thought to be similar to Google's. Of course, there are subtle differences, and the competition is healthy for us as searchers, since the "big three" push each other to improve the relevance and accuracy of their indexing.

So ....... given the constant evolution in search engine technology, and the complicated nature of the task of optimizing a web site for placement in the rankings, what are we, as web masters, to do? How does one ever learn all of this in the first place, and even then, how do we keep up to date? Fortunately, search engine optimization software is available to simplify our lives, and some excellent texts are available to help you achieve higher search engine ranks.

Programs are available to check the accuracy of our HTML and the structure of your page, and both of the major search engine optimization packages offer submission assistance that greatly simplifies the process of getting listed in both indexes and relevant directories. Personally, I have found the initial investment of a few hundred dollars to have repaid me many times over, both in what I have learned, and in the results achieved.

Getting Listed in Directories

As was mentioned above, a directory is simply a list of websites, organized by categories, and displayed alphabetically. Yahoo, which is now also an index, started as a directory. DMOZ, also known as ODP, is now the biggest and most important directory. Getting listed in DMOZ will give your site a significant boost in how it is ranked by the major indexes. Being listed in other directories will also help you, if for no other reason than the fact you'll have incoming links to your web site. You may actually also get some traffic as people search those directories and find your site, but if you get nothing but the added link reputation and popularity, submitting to at least the major directories is well worth your time.

You really must register your site with the Open Directory Project, more commonly known as DMOZ. To ensure you'll be indexed by the various spiders, especially by the "googlebot", you really need to be listed in DMOZ. You only need to register once, although you may have to submit several times before you get listed. If your site does not show up in their main directory within four weeks, then submit again! It can sometimes take three or four tries to get indexed by their volunteer editors, but it is worth it, since Google, in particular, is thought to give significant weight to whether or not a site is listed in DMOZ, and this may be true of other spiders, as well. You can register your site with DMOZ here.